§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he is aware that Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Cottrell and their two children are being accommodated in the Hotel Antoinette, Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey, at a cost to social security funds of £25 a week; how long this has been going on; and why social security funds are being used for this purpose.
§ Mr. AlisonI am informed that the London Borough of Kingston, whose responsibility this is, placed this family in hotel accommodation for a period of about six weeks because its temporary accommodation for homeless families was fully occupied. The alternative was to break up the family by taking the children into care, a situation which the authority rightly considered should be avoided. Social security funds were not involved.